With winter fast approaching there are often blustery showers. Because of high winds you will, more often than not, see broken umbrellas discarded in bins or on the roadside. There is no need to throw away a broken umbrella because it is so easy to fix.
The most common failure points on an umbrella are the little rivets holding the component parts of the stretchers together. All you need, to fix the stretchers, is some wire, a pair of scissors and a sailing knot.
You will need a 6-inch piece of enamelled wire, enamelled so that it doesn't rust in the wet. Not too thick a piece of wire that you can't get enough wraps from it and not too thin that it is too weak to hold the stretcher together in a wind. Now, don't go buying wire, we are meant to be recycling and reusing. Open up the mains cable in some old appliance you no longer use and look for some free wire in there.
Next, match up the rivet holes of the two pieces of broken stretcher and pass the wire through the holes. Wrap the wire around and thread through again.
Keep doing so until there is no more room for more wraps of wire. Do two half-hitches (look it up here) with the wire. Trim the two ends of the wire to about half an inch in length. Twist the ends of the wire together and then tuck them away. Job done!
Now go outside and rejoice by imitating Gene Kelly.
Don't chuck that broken umbrella!
Get off the path weirdo!
Here, in Northampton, there are many walks through grey field sites that have been converted into woods and nature trails. These walks offer pleasant shortcuts to various parts of town to which I go shopping. However, I have noticed odd looks from others I see along the way.
I have realised what separates myself from everyone else I see, they have a dog with them. The only reason why these people are walking is because they have to walk their dogs. There is no other reason, these people can think of, for walking. And so, when they see me, they naturally think that I lost my car or I am a serial killer.
To be honest, a month ago, I did lose my car after some idiot pulled into the main road, I was travelling on, without looking. However, before then I was a walker anyway. I just find it odd that others find it odd for anyone to be a voluntary walker.
The lack of a car means that I cannot go farm spotting until the New Year. My licence is not quite two years old and that makes renting a car very difficult and very expensive. I have a few projects to work on, which will keep me busy during these dark depressing days.
Today, I dug up a few onions that had been forgotten from the autumn harvest. I have also been cleaning an old valve oscilloscope and signal generator. They still work. On eBay I have been selling off some scrap I plundered. "Where there's muck there's brass!"
When has food really gone off?
I am known to make a chicken last a week. Roasted on Sunday, the chicken's legs and wings are eaten. The rest of the chicken is stripped off, the bones boiled up for stock. Next day, the remaining chicken is made into curry, which will give four portions. The stock makes soups.
I am surprised to see many people fearful of my cooking methods. I cook my curry, leave it in the pot and leave the pot in the oven but never in a fridge. I don't have access to a fridge and wouldn't know what to do with one, if I had one. I take a bit of curry of the pot and reheat it when needed.
Many people are quite ignorant of food safety but you can't blame them in a society that is geared to frightening people, making them worried so they can be more easily controlled.
A useful news article on the BBC explains the true meaning of 'use-by', 'best-before' and 'sell-by' dates. Essentially, don't eat anything after its use-by date but anything after a best-before or sell-by date is just as edible as it was afore the date.
Far too much food is wasted because people buy too much and/or do not understand the safety labels. This week I spent £4.14 at the supermarket. I rely on my home-grown vegetables, any freebies I can get hold of, cheap supermarkets, buying raw ingredients, avoiding processed food and never eating out (unless someone else is paying!).
There are plenty of bargains to be had when supermarkets sell food cheaply as it reaches its sell-by date. But hurry, as more of us purchase bargains like this, supermarkets will catch on and lobby parliament for the abolition of date labelling so they can sell old food for the same high prices as fresh food.
BBC - Sell-by buys
Darn it!
Not content with spending less than £5 at the supermarket this week, I decided to darn my socks rather than buy new ones.
"But James, a new pair of socks would only cost you a few pounds."
Well, the price of the thread used came to about a penny so that's quite a saving. I walked to my local craft shop and bought 12 metres of tapestry thread for 75p. For darning you need a thread thicker than sewing thread so tapestry thread fits the bill.
Darning couldn't be easier, just a few running stitches in one direction to cover the hole and then weave the thread through the stitches at right angles until you have weaved a patch over the hole. No knots required. Job done!
A few pounds saved, which will pay for next week's shopping.
An update
I harvested the above a few weeks ago. Plenty of potatoes, onions, shallots, carrots and tomatoes. The lettuce came thick and fast over the summer. Probably my best ever harvest as I have not bought any vegetables this year.
My bags are packed and I'm ready to go to ... I have a few small farms to see in ... I'll let you know when I settle into ... I never like to talk about plans a) because I rarely plan, I prefer to let life take me where it will b) if I do plan then it always goes wrong.
I have been experimenting with junk and built a solar AA battery charger, which will charge my radio, mobile phone and lights. My laptop and razor will have to run off the car.
One of my few purchases recently was for a Kelly Kettle. I have converted it to gasify wood, which gives a cleaner and more efficient burn so that water boils more quickly and with less fuel.
I intend heating water and cooking with wood even though I may end up in a house with all mod cons until I find somewhere to buy. My intention is to live as I intend to so no taking it easy with switch flicking because I just can't be paying bills.
Interesting visit to a car breaker's yard, yesterday. So much useful stuff lying around.
Signing off for now. Reporting back in a few weeks time.
